1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a touch panel, and more particularly to a fabricating method for an electrode of a touch panel.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, more and more electronic appliances adopt a touch panel to be as an input device and a display device. The touch panel performs an input function through the touch of an image displayed thereon by a writing utensil such as a stylus pen or a finger.
The touch panel is mainly classified as a resistive touch panel and a capacitive touch panel. In the resistive touch panel, glass is shorted with an electrode under the pressure of the writing utensil so that a touch point of the writing utensil is detected. In the capacitive touch panel, the variation in capacitance between electrodes is detected when a finger of the user touched on the capacitive touch panel, so that the touch point of the finger is detected.
A conventional capacitive type touch panel is described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. FIG. 1 is a top view illustrating the conventional capacitive type touch panel, a touch panel 100. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the touch panel taken along line A-A′ of FIG. 1. The electrode 102 of the touch panel 100 is formed on a substrate 101. The electrode 102 includes a plurality of first sensing electrodes 102a arranged in parallel in a first direction (for example, an X-axis direction) and a plurality of second sensing electrodes 102b arranged to intersect in a direction (for example, an Y-axis direction) perpendicular to the first sensing electrodes 102a. The first sensing electrodes 102a and the second sensing electrodes 102b are interlaced but insulated with each other by a first insulation film 103 and a second insulation film 105. Further, neighboring first sensing electrodes 102a arranged in the first direction are connected to each other by a metal bridge 104. That is, the metal bridge 104 connects the neighboring first sensing electrodes 102a and second sensing electrodes 102b. 
Conventionally, a method of manufacturing a capacitive type touch panel includes four processes. First, a first metal layer is deposited on the substrate 101. Then, the first metal layer is patterned by performing a photolithography process by applying a first mask to form the metal bridge 104. Next, a photo-resist layer is deposited on the metal bridge 104. The photo-resist layer is patterned by performing a photolithography process using a second mask to form a first insulation layer 103. A second metal layer is deposited on the first insulation layer 103 and the metal bridge 104. Then, the second metal layer is patterned by performing a photolithography process using a third mask to form the first sensing electrodes 102a and second sensing electrodes 102b. A photo-resist layer is deposited on the first sensing electrodes 102a and the second sensing electrodes 102b. The fourth mask is applied to form a second insulation layer 105.
However, the conventional capacitive type touch panel is manufactured with 4 mask processes, and each mask process accompanies a photolithography process requiring a series of continuous processes such as photo-resist (PR), coating, alignment, exposure, development, and cleaning. As such, there are still needs to reduce the number of the process steps for the mask process.